Tag Archives: fresh

It’s May, and although uncharacteristically cool here, I am getting really amped for warm, Spring-like weather to finally show its face. None of this “I’ll be 70-80 for four days and then snap into miserable rain with temps in the 40s-50s for three weeks” B.S. – actual, legitimate WARMTH.

Though it would wreak havoc on my sanity to sit inside my window-studded office building and look out at all of the nature I’m missing, I fully anticipate taking advantage of the nice weather as soon as 3:30 p.m. rolls around and I can scoot out of that building faster than the speed of light. The Ryan and I have a patio, but I’m not quite sure how much I would trust our neighbors to leave any patio furniture or grill we may acquire alone. That being said, my past Springs and Summers have been spent living outside with a grill and, before I moved out to the desert..and back..spent with MANY citronella candles. I am actually on the hunt for a citronella PLANT that I can put in a pot and stick outside to ward off the bugs. I’ve heard cats dislike citronella as well, so maybe a plant would wrangle in our two should they choose to escape outside (*coughcoughLestat*).

I think I will have to see about purchasing a small, personal grill (like they use on camping trips, maybe?) until such time as we are no longer on the bottom floor of a very populated apartment complex. But enough about grilling, you came here for the breakfast, didn’t you? As you know, I am a sucker for fresh fruits, and what better way to spend a warm, Spring morning, than sipping on a delicious, healthy smoothie full of vitamins and other awesome goodness?

A few weeks ago, I hit an awesome fruit sale at the store and picked up some raspberries and a big ol’ case of strawberries, which I brought home and put in the freezer. The Ryan, knowing my desire to use the fruits for smoothies, was sweet enough to pick up a quart of vanilla yogurt for me, and since we always keep OJ in the house (you should see that boy drink OJ, omg), I was set to roll. So, this morning, I made a strawberry/raspberry yogurt smoothie. This whole process will take you like 5 minutes, so it’s good if you’re like me and get up only to run out the door 15 minutes later:

Pour the result into a glass and enjoy it. If you don’t like the consistency (this comes out very creamy), feel free to add more strawberries and a handful of ice. Play around with it until you get what you like.

Ever had one of those arguments with your best friend wherein the sole purpose of said argument was simply to one-up the other? “You don’t like ham? What’s wrong with you?” “What do you mean what’s wrong with me? You don’t like corn on the cob!! What’s wrong with you??” “I like corn, I just don’t like the texture of it between my teeth! And besides,YOU don’t like cabbage, which is simply inhuman.”

It’s like being transported back to the playground in fourth grade: “MY dad is a spy! He shoots bad guys and drives super fast sports cars like 007!” “Oh yeah, well MY dad is an astronaut, and once, he strangled a velociraptor with his BARE HANDS after traveling back in time in a time machine!”

Under any circumstance, it should be noted that the velociraptor argument always wins.

But, I digress. In this scenario, the best friend is also my boyfriend, who shall henceforth just be known as the Ryan: because that is who he is. Anyway, all of this took place whilst driving to the grocery store for some “fibrous, vegetal material” that the Ryan seems to think covers the entire spectrum of fruits and vegetables. Don’t get me wrong, he will eat anything (well..most anything) that I put in front of him, but he doesn’t necessarily always like it.

With summer coming up, I find that I become less into the traditional meat and potatoes or hearty soup menu and go more into an overload of fresh fruits and veggies. Farmer’s Markets become my fourth grade playground, and I go gaga for corn, squash, berries, and anything else summertime can throw at me (that isn’t a mosquito). Does this happen to anyone else?

And what exactly do I do with this fibrous vegetal material? How do I keep it from getting old, sad and boring? And how do I incorporate it into the meat and potatoes-esque menu that the Ryan (and the cats, who scavenge any crumb they can get their paws on) seems to so very much enjoy?

That is precisely what I intend this blog to be about. I suppose that now would be a splendid time for a bit of an introduction, so here goes: My name is Beth, and I live somewhere on the eastern seaboard. Say, close to the Nation’s Capital and all that. In my grown-up life I work for Uncle Sam and am a student in university studying Anthropology and International Relations. I enjoy photography and play the piano in my spare time. I am also the rare breed they call “girl gamer,” but of the lighter variety (much Portal, Final Fantasy and WoW were played back before I had a life). As previously mentioned, the Ryan and I also have two furbabies we like to pretend we own by the names of Sam and Lestat. If anyone ever tells you they own a cat, they are selling something. If they try to disagree, let them lay in bed and be stomped on by an angry storm of paws at 5 a.m. when it’s time for breakfast. That’ll show ’em.

And of course, I love to cook, eat, and feed people. No, really, I LOVE it! Nothing makes me happier than a nice group of friends and a delicious meal. Or of course, a new recipe! I spent a short amount of time in a kitchen as a cook, and I am constantly looking for new and fun things to add to my repertoire. I’m not the *greatest* in the world, but that’s all part of the adventure – the adventure I hope to share with you lovely people.

And, to top it all off, the Ryan’s parents are a bit..hmm..They need some help in the kitchen arena. From what I understand, his last venture home ended up with him tossing out seven of eight melon ballers, three of five bread knives, and a whole slew of pots and pans that were rusted. Both parents are on special, separate health-related diets, so as a gift to the rents, we (and by we, I mean I’m cooking and he’s observing casually from the other room over an episode of Extreme Engineering) are working our way through many cookbooks and making parent-friendly adjustments as we go with the idea of creating them a custom cookbook/appendix by Christmas.